


I Think We're Alone Now

by TooYoungToFeelThisTired



Series: What if? [5]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternative Timeline, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, First Time, Masturbation, No Incest, Older Woman/Younger Man, Post-Apocalypse, Pseudo-Incest, Resolved Sexual Tension, Sexual Content, Survivor Guilt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-01-31 19:25:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 18,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18597838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TooYoungToFeelThisTired/pseuds/TooYoungToFeelThisTired
Summary: Vanya survives the first apocalypse. Five time travels to the future. Life is hard, but at least they are together...maybe it's enough. Five/Vanya,





	1. The Last Woman on Earth

**Disclaimer: I don’t even own a car, furthermore, the Umbrella Academy**

* * *

 

The fainted sounds of her siblings begging her to stop were the last thing Vanya heard before she got consumed by her internal darkness and let the white violin destroyed the world. As she completely lost herself in the power knowing there would be no way out, she spared a thought at Ben, her brother who died too young wondering if he as well felt almost relieved after the agony ended and the darkness came over him like a warm blanket finally allowing him to rest. Later when she remembered the memory she realized his screams were too violent to even hope he had a peaceful death.

One second the world was coming to an end, and the next she was woken up on the ground with ash, fire, dust and destruction all around her.

Her head felt like she was run over, and she could taste the blood in her mouth. She barely managed to stand up looking around confused before she remembered she was the one who caused this. Was this really what she wanted? The end of everyone and everything?

The voices of the white violin, who used to be so loud cheering at her as she was slipping away, were suddenly quiet. She looked down at her dirty hands covered in dust and her own blood realizing, her father was wrong about one thing. Her powers weren’t limitless after all. And once they were gone all that was left was pain, sorrow, and guilt.

She didn’t know how long or where she headed from there. With her head still hurting it felt like she was walking inside a dream, everything was sort of blurry and unfocused.

Vanya should have known her steps would have led her back to the destroyed Academy. If she could still hear the white violin, she would surely mock the place.

_Look at what is left of the great Umbrella Academy?_

But Vanya felt no such urge. All she felt was sadness and shame looking at her home. Was it really all bad? Did she not have some sparks of happiness there? She did, but only a few and far between each other, not enough to make up for what happened.

When she heard something move and saw a boy walking from the destroyed in half door, she froze in place now completely unsure if it wasn’t all a dream after all.

The boy with raven hair looked around confused and in despair before he must have sensed her gaze on him and turn his head toward her direction.

She felt as if all the air was knocked out of her lungs as she realized who he was.

_Number Five_

Oh, how long it had been since she last saw him, and he appeared to her now looking the same as the day he run away. Perhaps, death wasn’t so bad after all.

However, the moment, he must have snapped out of his own shock, he started to run to her and the small on her face faded as the horror of what she did creeped into her mind and soul.

_Five, I killed the world._

She blacked out right after that thought to the oblivious of what was left of the world.

When she woke up again, she was pressed against a dusty looking torn in half couch with her white jacket was over her shoulders. Five was sitting at the edge of couch looking at her.

‘Miss, how do you feel?’ he asked her immediately and suddenly the ache of the head was nothing compare to the ache of the heart she felt in that moment.

Of course, he didn’t recognize her. How could he? He was thirteen and she was thirty. She looked nothing like she did when he spared that final look her way he before rushed out of the door, the house, their family, her life. Yet, he looked the same.

‘Miss? Can you tell me what happened?’ he asked trying to sound polite but failing as his patience was running out on him. He was always like this. Even as a child, he could act all polish and above it all, but Vanya could sense how easily he was triggered at times. He was more emotional than he liked to admit and tempted to let lose whenever someone was being an idiot.

She looked away from him and tried to stand up realizing it was a mistake as he grabbed her elbow to hold her close and from falling to her knees. Her eyes landed on his hand in confusion. His hand was still so small. He was a child. He was still Five. Number Five who left perhaps just a day ago or the same day not knowing what occur in the 17 years of his absence. Not knowing that she got consumed by the white violin and destroyed the world, killing their siblings in the process.

She had questions of her own. Questions like why did you have to leave? Was this where you go? Did you get stuck here? Did you look back as you run or just went forward without a second thought, like you always did?

_Can you forgive me?_

She shook her head at him her words dying slowly inside her mouth.

He tried again, asking if her head hurt, and that she might have a concussion if she felt confused, but Vanya didn’t answer.

She just kept on shaking her head as tears started to fall down her face. She didn’t even care if she was making him uncomfortable as he was a kid and didn’t know how to handle such emotions from a stranger woman, she just wanted to cry it all out.

It took months, but Five slowly stopped asking questions. At least the kind he wanted an actual answer to. He started to ask hypothetical ones which were somehow connected to his time travelling theories and ideas of how to get back.

They slowly build up somewhat of a camp and started to scavenge around letting go of almost all their humanity and morals little by little.

It was easier for Five, than Vanya at times as she lived in the society for more years than him.

She hadn’t said anything to him since they found each other, and Five sort of got used to it, filling the absence of her voice with his own. She didn’t mind one bit. When they were kids it was often like this as well. He would lead endless monologues about his theories and ideas and Vanya would patiently listen to him offering comfort and companionship. They only things she ever wished to receive as a child as well, but rarely did, until she didn’t at all.

They were starting to get familiar with one another to the point of memorizing each step or gesture they made. Five was the only one who spoke, but he got pretty good and recognizing each of her frowns grimaces and small smiles knowing almost instantly what she meant by it as if she said it. It felt painfully like old times, and yet nothing like them at all. In a world which Vanya let the white violin destroyed, she enjoyed it nevertheless.

About six months later, according to Five, he offered her an open can of corn one evening.

She took nodding at him at silent thanks which he then replied to, ‘You’re welcome, Ariel.’

The name caused her to blink confused at him. He obviously noticed but only gave away a small smirk, the kind which used to make her stomach get tied in a tight knot of anticipation of what bold and completely wonderful move he would do next.

He didn’t offer an explanation to the name, but since then he started to call her that more and more. It was probably a week later when she was trying to untangle her hair with her fingers she remembered a particular scene from a popular Disney movie they once watched in secret when they were about nine-ish. The little mermaid, who gave up her voice for legs to be with the prince. She couldn’t help, but appreciate the irony with a small stab in her heart.

Still, she grew to like the name at times when they were sitting in front of the fire, and Five was talking about his childhood adventures with his siblings Luther, Diego, Allison, Klaus, Ben and Vanya, it almost felt like she was Ariel, the woman without a voice with Number Five, a member of the great Umbrella Academy trying to survive the hostile world they found themselves to be in. Listening about Vanya from Five’s perspective truly felt as if she was hearing about another person. When he spoke about her his voice always grew a bit tender than it usually did, and it made her smile a bit.

‘I know it’s silly, Ariel,’ he spoke as the fire was slowly slowing down, ‘but I still have hope she and Ben are somewhere out there.’

She reached out and put her hand against his chest and then her own nodding as if telling him, she had hope as well. The smile he gave her was enough to make it all seem like a bad dream, and she really was just Ariel.

Based on that it was like she split into three different people. Vanya the little girl from Five’s stories who was so sweet and carrying and lonely. The white violin, who destroyed the world turning it into ruins and ash. And Ariel, the woman without a voice who tried to survive with Five in the destroyed world. She was grateful to be someone else.

It had taken her almost a year, but after a rather harsh night where her dreams were filled with monstrous boyfriends and siblings with dead eyes, she for the first time felt a familiar sensation of her powers stroking the back of her mind. It was so faint she almost missed it completely until Five didn’t take her hand and pulled her up from the ground pointing at the sky and raising his head looking happier than she ever saw him, now or when they were kids, ‘Look, Ariel, it’s raining.’

She got so consumed by the nightmare, the small spark of her powers, that she fail to notice the rain drops which were running down her face and body. It was raining for the first time since the apocalypse.

She had no doubt, it was her doing and started to shake the raining growing a bit more intense.

Five laughed in delight squeezing her hand and opening his mouth to taste the bliss of water inside his always dried mouth.

Vanya knowing she couldn’t really be Ariel no matter how much she wanted to closed her eyes and tried to control the rain to continue falling gathering as many gloomy thoughts as she could for Five’s sake and the smile on his face.

At some point she wasn’t sure if the water on her face, were raindrops anymore.

A little after that, when she thought Five was looking for anything useful at the other side of the city. She dared herself to return to the place of her worst crime against humanity. Cowardly, she wouldn’t go with Five when he told her he found his siblings and went to bury them. Now it just looked like any other ruined building.

She walked there slowly. Even when she was disoriented from the hit to the face and using her powers to the point of exhaustion, she still remembered exactly where she left it.

It was covered under some ruins looking as unharmed as Vanya herself. The instrument of her destruction. Her atomic bomb.

She grabbed her violin. It used to be a lovely wooden brown colour, but now it was all white. It was madding.

Vanya felt rage shake within her at the instrument. She loved it. She loved the violin since she was a child knowing it was the only thing she ever got from her father, the only thing she ever received. She practiced every day, several hours a day until her fingers were sore and bleeding, but she loved every second of it because it was something hers. Something which gave her meaning and compassion in her loneliest times. Something which made her feel at least sometimes sparks of joy. She used to be in love with her violin, which used to bring her salvation from the loneliness and sadness. But in the end it brought her nothing but guilt, shame and pain.

Vanya grabbed it and smashed it against the ground creating the most to God awful sound the little strings could produce. She didn’t stop though. She smashed it again and again and kicked and punched until the violin wasn’t completely broken and unusable.

Only as the sound of the butchered violin finally faded and there was nothing but the silence of the world she killed left did Vanya let the tears of frustration out.

She fell to her knees and cried for what felt like hours screaming her lungs out in the process. In that moment, she wished more than anything that she had died with her siblings and the rest of the world.

It felt like a whole day went by until she finally stood up and returned to the camp. Five was there waiting for her patiently with some food and new things he managed to gather.

He asked where she was. She partly expected him to demand to know why hadn’t she brought anything back with her, but one look at her face shut him up offering her some food and water before he filled the silence with what he found and saw that day, giving her time to compose herself. It was far more generosity than she deserved, but she took it.

Afterwards she washed and cleaned the camp a bit around. When he went to help her, she stopped him trying to gesture him that he found the things so she would do this.

More months went by, and Five grew taller than her slowly turning into a man, that she didn’t get to witness growing up herself. If she would want to hug him, she would only barely reach the top of his shoulder now. Of course, she wouldn’t hug him because they were never taught such affection when they were kids, and Five was always the most reserved one of them all. She was also afraid to touch him too often, as she was worried she would start crying and admit that as much as she wished to be Ariel, she was someone else entirely.

Her powers were coming back to her little by little. She could make it rain filling their buckets with water and making the earth not be so dry. She could also create breezes warm and nice or cold and wild. She knew she was pushing her luck as Five was getting suspicious about why was the wind suddenly warm on cold days, and why nice and fresh on very hot days. Still, he looked pleased by anything which made their survival in the world more bearable. And it was the fact that it was becoming bearable and that Five was there and that everything for the first time was starting to make her feel almost...truly and honestly happy, that she started to slip up in the worst way imaginable.

It was the evening in the summer about four years after the apocalypse, after the white violin destroyed the world.

They were sitting by the fire, Five was talking and they drank a bit from the bottle of wine, which he found in the old vine cellar that survived the impact of her powers. The wine was bitter, but it served as something to numb the guilt, and pain for the both of them so they drank enjoying themselves and the sour taste in their mouths.

Ariel was looking at the stars, the painful reminder that the moon wasn’t there anymore was also numbed by the alcohol, when Five suddenly sighed.

She turned her head toward him as he said, ‘I miss music. My siblings and I used to listen to these old records of my brother’s and dance around the house when our father was away. I hated the song _I think we’re alone now_ , but we were all so happy. And it felt so good. I would give anything to hear it now,’ he was rambling a bit from the wine.

_I think we’re alone now_

_There doesn’t seem to be anyone around_

It was the first time he drank after all.

_The beating of our heart is the only sound_

They never had enough food and since she hadn’t drank any alcohol in four years, it must have gotten to her head quicker and more than she thought because the next things she knew was that she started to hum the melody of the song.

_Look at the way we gotta hide what we're doin'_

She sensed Five jerking for a moment probably startled that for the first time he heard someone else making a sound and not him before he looked at her.

_'Cause what would they say_

When he stood up grabbing her and pulling her toward his chest almost crashing her toward him, she half expected him to call out on her bluff.

_Running just as fast as we can, holding on to one another hands_

She expected him to say he knew she was Vanya and the white violin, and the monster who killed their siblings and did this to him, damned him for life in this terrible place.

_Trying to get away into the night_

Instead, however, Five’s green eyes shined with emotions as he said, ‘Ariel, dance with me.’

_And then you put your arms around me_

She swallowed caught off guard by the intensity of the moment before she put her hands on his shoulders humming the song over and over again as they swung around to the sound both probably thinking about the times they would dance only wilder than this with their siblings.

_And we tumble to the ground and then you say_

Although her whole body shook, she forced her eyes to stay on his trusting him that even as his eyes never left hers, he could lead the dance without stepping on her feet or making them knock something over.

_I think we're alone now_

Ariel would like to think it was the only time she slipped up with the humming and dancing with him so close, but it was just the first. A few moments of happiness and satisfaction causing endless nights of pain, that was what the slipped up brought. After that it suddenly became painfully clear and obvious that they were two people stuck in the world with no other people, or morals, or society.

A woman and a now a man who secretly and sometimes not so secretly lingered with each others’ glazes, or necessary touches or close proximity. It was clear there was tension which could be cut with a knife around them now. Both holding their breaths to see what would happen next and who would be the first to budge.

Before this, before she was Ariel, she was Vanya, and Vanya used to crave human touch and closeness having been without it for so long, but she was used to it. Yet, now she was Ariel, who knew what it was like when his hand brushed her back asking if her back hurt from the bad form she slept with. She knew what if felt like when they sometimes drank and he wanted to dance with her again pulling her tiny waists toward him and pressing his chin against the top of her head. She knew what it was like when he got sick and let him sleep for three days with his head in her lap as she was terrified he would die if she let go of him. She knew his touch, and she was afraid of losing it because of something, which she didn’t dare her mind to wander to, was happening.

Soon after that, Five started to disappear on her. At first it was subtle as if he went to do something, or look for something. They were strangers even if they were the only survivors. It was natural that at times they needed a moments alone without one another. It was the reason why it took Ariel so long to realize it. It wasn’t until she noticed three little dandelions growing out of the smallest yet greenest piece of ground.

The earth was coming alive again.

She felt so shocked and thrilled, she ran to the direction she saw Five head earlier. She couldn’t find him and after a while she slowed her pace wondering if maybe he just went back to the camp already, and she missed him. It wasn’t until she heard it.

It was a fainted sound, but it was a groan, nevertheless.

She stopped and turned to the direction of it. She saw him with his back against the ruins. If he would open his eyes, he would immediately spot her, but his eyes were closed.

He made another sound, raw and feral as he moved his hand inside his pants feverishly, his face reddish maybe not entirely from the hot sunny day.

She felt frozen in place as she watched him feeling herself getting warmer as well, her legs turning to jelly and something, a sensation, she tried to avoid for her own sake for years now returning, making her come alive.

When he let out a choked sound indicating, he must have been finished, she panicked and rushed away to the camp hoping he didn’t see her or hear her in any way. Yet, when his hand touched her shoulder once he came back, and he leaned down to her level whispering in her ear if she alright because she looked all flushed, she had a feeling he knew.

He probably was only concerned about her since afterwards he gave nothing away making her feel like some old pervert as she remembered his face when he came looking so beautiful and flushed and at peace. Apart from the sensation in her lower parts, she also felt something else when she saw him like that. Something far more worse than lusting over your by seventeen years younger brother, something which made her heart swell with joy and her mind with horror at the same time. Something like love. Her worst possible slip up yet.

Since then she never followed or went looking for him again, although now she knew exactly what he did when he disappeared and it left her feel all sweating and bother for some release as well. This caused that whenever he returned from his private moments he found her either sewing or washing clothes, or boiling water, or trying to cook, or doing anything really which would somehow make her busy and not think about Five’s beautiful face and the obscene sounds he made when he was stroking himself under his pants. Something she wasn’t supposed to be thinking at all and yet in the night when she could hear his steady breathing next to her on their wannabe beds she couldn’t stop her thought from asking _so what_? Fortunately or not, every tiny bit of courage or want was shot down as guilt spotted even a hint of something other than suffering in her mind.

_How could you be so selfish?_ _Do you think could possibly ask for anything after what you did?_

And it was right. How could she want something anything when she already got so much? She was alive and she had Five. She was already rewarded, and she didn’t even deserve it.

Frustrated she rolled to her side her back to Five as she tried to let go of Vanya, and just be Ariel and sleep. Some nights it was impossible to do so though.

Sometimes, they both wonder into a library which was still partly standing, books and torn pages all around the place.

The thing about living in a world like this was that they had too much do around and yet not enough. She knew he went south, but as he didn’t came back for hours and hours she grew worried. Even if he went for some personal time, he was never gone for this long.

A feeling of pure horror sank in as dark thoughts caught onto her like that he hurt himself somehow and was lying somewhere helpless or he...left. He found a way to time travel back and…left her finally giving her all deserved for what she had done...endless loneliness as the last person on earth.

She found herself running before she could stop herself. Stopping only when she finally saw him sitting on a broken pillar reading a book in his hand. Her relief was short lived because as she walked closer and closer ready to give him a mocking and amused look about him losing track of time and himself in a book, she caught the half of the title.

_Extraordinary_

Although covered by his fingers which were holding it, she could clearly see her parts of her face on the picture on the back. Her adult face.

_Do you hate me as well now?_

It was the only thing which crossed her mind as she took a step back. The move caused a small rock to shift under her shoe.

Five’s eyes snapped up to her.

She ran.

‘Vanya!’

She closed her eyes and tried to run away, where she didn’t know, before she felt and heard the familiar sound of the space being ruptured and Five’s arms were on her shoulder, their chest against each other. He teleported to her.

‘Stop! Vanya, please-’

‘I’m sorry,’ was the first thing she said in five years since they were there.

‘I’m sorry, Five, I-I-’

He kissed her before she could utter another word out crashing his lips against hers in the most desperate and hopeless kiss she ever received.

She tried to push at him, confused and shaken and wrecked.

He broke the kiss probably finally catching on to her small protests. However, the moment his lips parted from hers, she grabbed the front of his shirt desperately pulling him toward her not even knowing what she was doing at this point.

They moved like they were starving which they were because in this world full of ash and dust with almost nothing left you could only starve for food, for water, for touch, for a sound, for anything really.

She felt his hands all over her trying to touch as much skin as the shirt she was wear and ripped pants were allowing him craving it just as much as she did. _Craving more._

His lips moved to her jaw, and her throat, and the moment he lightly sank his teeth into the soft skin there, she let out the most relief moan she had a feeling she was holding back for years now.

They started to undress each other, but they were too feverish and desperate ending only with his pants to his knees and hers only a little bit lower, enough to reveal her though.

He ripped her shirt open at one point, with how much he was urging it all. He was displaying the adorable quickness, awkwardness and excitement of someone who was doing this for the first time, and it warmed her heart even if it would later hurt her more to know she was taking _this_ from his as well. She took away the world for him, and it still was not enough...

They didn’t say anything as they laid down in a tangled mess of limps communicating like animals only through sounds and moans.

His touch made her come to life only to kill her when he groaned her name as he stroke himself against her sending both thrill and pain through her.

He must have seen the hurt in her eyes because he paused for a moment which was the last thing, she wanted to do. If he stopped, if they stopped she wasn’t sure what would happen, and the uncertainty scared her too much to let that happen.

She reached between them and took him into her hand knowing she was using herself to manipulate him, to make him continue, to make them continue and not deal with the unavoidable elephant in the room for just a few more moments.

He closed his eyes letting out a whimper from having someone else stroking him.

‘ _Seven_ ,’ he breathed out suddenly as he brushed her hand away but linked his finger through hers pushing it to the ground next to her head.

Seven, Number Seven, the not so ordinary one of them. Seven who was all of it, Vanya, the white violin and Ariel. She was all of them and she was her. It hurt too much when she was just Vanya, it was dreadful when she was the white violin, and it was only a beautiful lie when she was Ariel, but when she was Seven she was all of them and was somewhat content enough she could accept it and herself to be Seven.

When Five opened his eyes looking at her, there was no hate, no blame, no rage. There was lust, but there was also adoration and _love_.

She felt a small tear run down her face as he leaned down and kissed her this time a bit softer.

‘Five, _please_.’

They didn’t waste more time. He entered her with one quick almost old fashioned move still trembling in her embrace. Much later when Seven was able to think about something else than him building up the wonderfully intense sensation inside her, she wondered about her first time and how overwhelming it must have been for Five.

He kept his face against her neck as he moved inside her, both of them moaning and groaning urging one another for more like wild animals looking at nothing but themselves and wanting nothing more than to fill their pleasures and needs.

He moved with an almost brutal force, but she liked that feeling herself coming sooner than ever before, just high from everything which was happening, not having a decent fuck in years, the fact that she must be in love with him, that he was here doing this not hating her all mixing to the rhythm of his thrusts. It was messy and uncoordinated, but it was the clear lack of experience and young feverish enthusiasm on Five’s part, which Seven let herself get consumed by. Every blissful second of it filling her body and soul in places, she didn’t even know were empty before.

When they came, it was felt raw and amazing as it completely left her mind blank and every part of her just… _full._

As he sat his forehead against her should kissing and nuzzling her there, she couldn’t help but feel the happiest she ever was with him on top of her crushing her a bit with his weight, the cold and hard ground hurting her back and the feeling of him dropping out from between her legs. It was messy almost nasty, and she _loved_ it.

She stroked his hair a bit letting the sensation slowly fade away before they both started to stand up. She could feel the awkwardness of what they just did approaching. How else could this result than in an absolute painful disaster?

However, instead of regret which she thought she would see in his eyes, she saw a bit embarrassment, but also the same adoration as before.  She saw care and she saw… _love._

He took her hand in his, kissing the back of it before he pressed it against his chest, ‘You’re forgiven.’

She started to cry feeling it all hit her at once, and through her tears which were blurring her vision she could see that he was crying as well.

_Forgiven? Forgiven?! HER?_

_How?_

How could he offer her something like that? She destroyed the world. She broke it. She killed everyone they knew and cared for and damned him for a life in this wasteland with her as a sole reminder that someone he cared for and thought was innocent did this. How could he just forgive her?

And yet, she took it. She grabbed it into her greedy hands with her nails digging into it like an animal ready to hiss and snarl at whoever would try to take it from her. She took it because she was a selfish person, and because it meant that she could have him. She could have Five and in the world where all was gone and nothing but him was left it was everything for her. Then again...having him was everything even before the world ended.

They came back to the camp, and she couldn’t help but feel different. The guilt was still there, but she also felt a bit lighter from all of it.

Five wouldn’t shut up now asking her questions about her powers, her adulthood simply everything. Her voice felt strange, like it didn’t belong to her, but maybe it wasn’t a bad thing. She didn’t know anymore, but for the first time, for a moment, she didn’t care.

They ate, and she talked and nothing really changed.

As she finished the dishes, he suddenly kneeled in front of her and kissed her. It was softer this time than before. When he pulled away, she could see the question behind his eyes. She leaned away as well and started to unbutton those few buttons Five hadn’t ripped completely before.

Before, it was sex in its rawest form, that was just how it was. The two of them on the ground in the mess grinding each other and fucking. It was good and there were moments when it was soft, but it was sex.

Now, as he laid her down and touched every piece of her slowly getting to know her, it wasn’t just sex it was something else, and it made her want to cry all over again. No one was ever this gentle to her, and she almost didn’t know how to handle it or how to deal with it knowing Five didn’t hate her for what she did.

Ever since they were younger she knew Five had a thirst for knowledge, he wanted to know everything, all there was about everything from history, math, literature, science. He wanted to know it _all_. Now the knowledge he wished to have was her body. It was like he wanted to know everything from the way he kissed and stroke and caressed her all over memorizing her like a map.

She felt him everywhere all at once as he moved around her now physically touching places which weren’t touched for years learning her reactions, her moans and hitched breaths. He was learning everything there was about her, and bringing her more pleasure than she thought could be possible in a world like this or at all for that matter.

When it became too much, too much of touching and teasing with no seemingly end, no release, when she was too sensitive and too close to the edge and she wanted nothing more for him than to burry himself inside her again and give her what she needed to most, she tried to tell him that they had time for all of _this_...this _worshiping_ later.

He raised his head from her centre, his mouth wet from her as he was causing her to fall apart with his lips on her down there, his eyes look different with something she hadn’t seen before inside them.

_‘But I want more_ ,’ he told her greedily before he was down again his tongue wrecking her all over again like she was in the middle of hell. And she was, and it felt _heavenly._

It felt like hours had passed until they were finally done, worn out. Both of them just lying on their made beds from clothing and anything which could be comfy and just a bit soft, linked with one another feeling completely at peace. The urge was satisfied for now even if it was still there under her skin as she could feel the heat of his skin against hers.

They were naked now with only a blanket over them and Seven’s powers creating a nice warm wind to keep them warm.

‘I knew it was you,’ he said as he stroked her hair a bit.

Seven who used to be Vanya, the white violin and Ariel now again looked up at him still feeling boneless from their night. It didn’t surprise her now to hear it. If he didn’t hate her, if he made love to her the way he did even offered her forgiveness, she didn’t care if he knew for months or just found out. It didn’t matter now anyway.

‘I found the book only today and got a bit sidetracked by it forgetting what time it was,’ he explained sounding a bit tired.

‘Sometimes, you talked in your dream. When you had nightmares,’ he explained, and she blinked. She didn’t know that.

‘You said their names, and that you wished you were death instead of them,’ he said pausing for a moment as he must have remembered those nights before he brushed her hair some more. She didn’t realize she missed such things. How could you miss something you never had? Before Leonard she didn’t have anyone who would touch he like this and even when he did so...it wasn’t real.

She tried to focus on his words so she wouldn’t get consume by that now. She sensed the wind changing again.

 ‘I was afraid that if I told you that I knew. If I let it out, you would let the guilt consume you completely and try to...and you would leave me here all alone.’

He was crying now, and she sat up. Her voice was still strange as she spoke, ‘Five, I’m sorry-’

‘I know,’ he said and kissed her making her taste the salt of his tears.

‘I forgive you, Seven.’

Not Vanya, not Ariel, not the white violin, and yet all of them inside Seven.  The white violin destroyed the world, Vanya couldn’t let go of let go of the guilt and Ariel tried to detached herself from it completely. Maybe Seven could accept it and let it go, but only because Five could as well.

And maybe just maybe…they could be happy in a world filled with ruins, ash and haunting memories together.

* * *

 


	2. The Last Man On Earth

The moment Five realized he made the worst mistake of his life was when he walked through the torn in half door of the ruins of the Umbrella Academy. After he had tried for what felt like hours to get back only to ultimately come to a conclusion that it was not possible he crashed to his knees for the first time in his life…not knowing what to do. He was a child, but he was a child of Reginald Hargreeves and a member of the Umbrella Academy. He always had a purpose. He always _knew_ what to do. But now it was like his hands were empty for the first time in his life, and he was desperate for something to hold. _Anything_.

He kneeled between the ruins of his home thinking about what was going on and wondering what to do. He couldn't explain the feeling of utter hopelessness which consumed him in that moment. He thought about all his siblings, he left behind feeling sick to his stomach at the realization that it was 2019, seventeen years later. He left them seventeen years ago and they…what? Lived without him? Or was he somewhere thirty years old walking around with the rest of them? If yes, where? Where?!

The city was quiet. So painfully quiet, it was like his ears wanted to bleed from the sound of absolutely nothing just the carrying on destruction of building around him.

Five wasn't sure how much time had passed until in the sound of burning fire, occasional fallen heavy rock and _nothing,_ he caught the sound of someone's footsteps hitting the payment.

He stood up feeling in like a trance and walked outside hoping to see someone, anyone, perhaps someone from his family alive and well and coming to get him, or _anyone_ really.

Outside the mansion, it took him a while to see her. A girl, dressed in white, walking toward him in the middle of pure destruction like the only salvation.

Filled with thoughts of hopelessness and emptiness, the first new thought which crossed his mind was the silliest yet.

_An angel_

He immediately chased the thought away knowing it was probably just him breathing the ash and smoke, not eaten anything or drink water properly that day and his mind playing tricks on him. He wasn't even religious, so why did he think that a girl in white in the center of all this chaos was an angel of all things was beyond him.

He ran toward her with hope quickly spreading through his veins. If there was one woman, there could be more. Maybe hidden, maybe scattered, maybe even his siblings, his family. This girl meant hope, hope that _all_ was not _lost_.

Just as he was about to reach her, she collapsed to the ground fainting in front of him.

He was by her side in a second checking her pulse, now up close noting that her white clothes were all covered in dust and ash, and there was a large dash on her forehead.

He tried to shake her away, but she was out cold.

Despite this, her being in distressed meant that Five's hero instincts and training kicked in. He needed to find a place for her to rest and check her for any other injures. If it was bad he needed a first aid kit and to nurse them. He did all that minus the kit and sat down on the ripped arm of the couch looking at her sleeping form.

The woman, not a girl as he falsely assumed at first based on her height, looked so paled and small almost like a child. But her face looked _so_ tired like she hadn't slept for a while. It didn't matter. He wasn't alone. There was another person here. Good, great even! She saw it. She might not have been in the center of it, but she must have seen something, and she survived which meant others might have as well. It was fine really. She would wake up soon and tell him what happened and together they would go look for others, even his siblings.

Yes, with a clear goal and purpose in his mind Five planned everything out to the last details. His thirst and hunger pushed aside as his mind was working wonders. This was good. This was what he needed to chase those terrible thoughts which tried to eat him alive when he was alone. No, when he _thought_ he was alone because he wasn't alone. There was this woman and there would be others and all would be well.

Another hour had passed before the woman started to stir, waking up, when her eyes opened, Five couldn't help but think about Vanya for a second again. She had the same hazel brown eyes as this woman. Almost the exact same, but this woman's eyes looked far more broken than Vanya's ever did. It momentarily scared him again to think where she was and what happened to her.

_Seventeen years…_

'Miss, how do you feel?' he asked her immediately getting her attention and taking his off of his sister for now. He had things to do, he could worry about Vanya later, the woman was here which meant she could be fine and well in some safe bunker with the rest of his family.

The woman kept on looking at him with so much pain it her eyes it was almost enough for him to look away.

'Miss? Can you tell me what happened?' he asked again trying not to sound irritated. He needed answers. He needed her to tell him what happened, how it happened. He needed her to talk.

But the woman didn't say a word and instead tried to stand up only for Five to see her knees jerk like she was about to fall again, and he put his hand on her arm supporting her.

'Maybe you should sit down again,' he said his voice much softer now. He knew he was being rude, the woman just _survived_ the apocalypse, and here he was pressuring her when she was maybe just as confused as him.

She sat back down. Five tried to be _nicer_. He knew he could be an ass and dealing with victims or witnesses was never his strong suit during a mission, but he tried seeing how small and fragile the woman looked in that moment. She looked completely _broken_ , and it made his stomach flinch and something inside him ache.

It was uncomfortable for him to stand, next to her, as she started to cry, but he swallowed it and tried to stand tall like a man feeling a sort of responsibility for this woman now as she was the first person he saw at this place all day. The feeling only grew stronger and more profound as the day ended and the next and next and Five realized she was the _only_ person around besides him. She was his responsibility now. His new purpose in this new cruel world. Build a camp, secure the camp, find food, water, protect the woman, and survive. The order of this was not important but his purpose was the only thing which helped him carry on somehow.

Months passed and little by little Five came to the understanding that the woman would not give him any useful answer about the apocalypse or anything for that matter whatsoever. It pissed him off a bit, but ultimately he accepted it that maybe she didn't have anything to say to him. Perhaps she was at home, or at work when it happened and she got hit into the head by a collapsed building so when she woke up all was gone, and she was just as in the dark about what happened as him.

That assumption was proven false many times, but the first time was when he tried to hide the fact that he cut his hand on the can the other day and couldn't properly fix it himself. The woman caught on to his injury when a bucket of water fell out of his hand after the sharp pain was proven to be too much for his hand.

He cursed loudly feeling angry at himself and his stupid injury. He knew later that it was more about the frustration from the whole living in the post-apocalyptic world than an injured hand and bucket.

She walked to him calmly and tried to sit him down.

'No, I'm fine.'

The look she gave him made him reconsider his lie immediately. The best way he could describe it was _cut the bullshit_. So it wasn't that she didn't have things to tell him, she just didn't say them out loud. He realized then that she had been giving him looks with spoke louder than words all the time, he just wasn't always good at decoding them.

He sat down a bit wary about the whole thing as the woman gently lifted his sleeve and check the cut before she started to take care of it.

Five watched her for a couple of moments, it felt…odd but also nice. It was a couple of weeks since he last saw his family, people, who well _cared_ for him even if they weren't tradition there was caring on some level. Not from their father, but Vanya and Ben sometimes the others in their strange way, Pogo, and even if she was only programmed to do so, Grace. He knew he was _cared_ for, that there were people who cared for him, his family.

But this was a stranger adult woman with tired face, broken look in her eyes wasn't his family. She had no obligation to him. He was raised to always have a purpose, a mission, a task. His task was to protect her, but that didn't mean she had to do the same.

Yet, she touched his hand so lightly taking care of his injure with a gentle look on her face which somehow made her look younger. She cared for him as well now. In this future, in this end of the world, she was the only one left beside him, and she cared for him enough not to let him bleed out or in pain. In a world where there was nothing left, it was more than he could ask for.

'Thank you,' he said once she was done.

She did a much better job than he did before.

As he looked up at her, he blinked a bit surprised by the soft smile playing on her lips. For the first time in months since he knew her, she didn't look so tired. She looked nice like this, smiling.

The most alien thought crossed Five's head that she looked pretty when she smiled.

He looked away feeling confused and a bit embarrassed mumbling about how they needed the water before he stood up and went to get it trying to focus his thoughts again. So strange. Later that night his dreams were filled with the woman and Vanya both smiling at him softly, their smiles the same at one point of the dream.

Despite the fact that they didn't see anyone for weeks, Five still…hope that maybe…somehow his family was alive. They were the Umbrella Academy. If there was anyone who would try to stop it, it was them. However, that all change when he found them…

It happened a few weeks into his life with the stranger woman in the apocalypse. The day he found all his siblings and buried them one by one. It took him the whole day. The woman refused to help or go near them. He couldn't force her even if he felt a bit upset. If she helped it would have been quicker. Still, when he finally came back she handed him food and water and clean clothes. Anything he needed really.

He realized she probably couldn't face dead people, and it was terrible of him to want her to. She was so fragile and broken at times. He took all she gave him gratefully knowing it was something, she did for him to make it better, to help him through the day. She couldn't go near his dead siblings, but she could do this.

He didn't feel like talking much that day trying to detach himself from what he had done. He had to drag most of his siblings out of the ruins. Not Luther though, he was too heavy, his body was different. Five tried not to dwell on all which he had missed by running away. Could he have stopped it? Saved them? Saved the world? The prosthetic eye, which was inside his pocket, was burning his fingers as he held it. Once again, he wondered how much of all of this was his fault. His and his stupid time travelling ideas. His father was right. Time travelling didn't give him what he wanted, it just took all he had away.

Time went by and Five realized he didn't like his companion to be nameless anymore. He tried to get her to write him a couple of times at least her name, but she just shook her head, her shoulders falling and her eyes filled with pain he couldn't possibly understand. Whatever happened to her, it must have been worse than anything he could imagine. He stopped asking after she grabbed the paper the last time he asked, ripped it to shreds and rushed away returning three hours later. He didn't tell her this, but the moment, she left he followed her in secret. He let her have her space as she walked around the city, but also stayed close, so he would know for sure she wouldn't leave him for good. He never asked her to write anything ever again.

He went for _Ariel_ as he watched the way she brushed her hair, or tried at least every morning. She did this a lot. They were alone, in a place where nobody cared anymore for morals, social behaviour or anything which had any value in the _real_ world, but the woman still tried to remain somewhat human in all of that. Trying to wash her face and brush her teeth and hair. Just trying to remain as much human as possible, where Five couldn't care less and only did so if he got a disapproving look from her.

It made him chuckle how her fingers went between the messy curls and she let out an annoying breath while brushing it over and over again, trying to separate it.

Once she threw a rock his way, not at him, just his way, shaking her head in clear annoyance that he was mocking her, he understood she wasn't pleased that he was making fun of her.

Five, not knowing what possessed him, walked up to her and tried to help her getting his fingers tangled in her hair earning a groan from her. It reminded him of a Disney movie the Little Mermaid they watched in secret as kids.

_Ha, that wouldn't be a bad idea._

He chuckled and before he could stop himself he said, 'This is nothing compare to when my sister got her hair stuck inside the keyhole during a mission. Now that was something.'

She turned around to look at him curiously.

He looked a bit away trying to compose himself it was the first time he ever spoke about his siblings especially since he buried them.

He felt her nudge his arm a bit with a calm expression on her face a very fainted smile as if telling him she wanted to know more. He didn't know if he wanted to talk about his siblings, but the moment, he started he couldn't seem to stop telling her everything and nothing, all the little almost trivial details about them. After a while it stopped being strange, and Five found himself liking the way, Ariel's face lightened up whenever he spoke about them. It felt good to talk about them as well. He even allowed himself to feel a bit fragile as well when he told her he still thought he could find Ben and Vanya somewhere. He knew how unluckily it was as the woman seemed to be the sole survivor, but he still had hope. Ariel showed compassion as she always did. He thought he liked her more because of it.

However, as she put her hand against his chest and offered him her soft understanding and supportive smile, he felt something strange in his chest warm and a bit uncomfortable. A familiar nervousness, he already encountered before with one of his siblings before he ran away. It was a painful reminder that they weren't there anymore while he still was. From time to time, when he was still at his time, he used have a hunch on what it was, always dismissing the idea the moment it rose. He couldn't possibly be crushing on Vanya, could he now?

Now as he watched Ariel's calm face, he did the same hoping, his face didn't show the warm he felt gathering in his cheeks from embarrassment thinking the same thing. He couldn't possibly be crushing on Ariel, could he now?

He presented her name to her in passing noting the confusion on her face, but also the acceptance as he started to repeat it. He didn't know if she liked it at all or not, but one day he found her brushing her hair again before she blinked and looked at him her mouth open and her fingers in her hair. She didn't utter a word, but he knew immediately that she caught on to why _Ariel_ and rolled her eyes even though the smile on her face said she was far from annoyed. It wasn't her soft one either, it was very amused, making her always sad eyes lighten up a bit.

Making life worth living in this world was about little things like your companion rolling her pretty brown eyes and chuckling whenever you called her by the most unsuitable name imaginable. Still, in Five's mind, if she wanted a better name she could bloody speak and tell him herself. For now he would enjoy the way she smiled at him because of it, like a little boy on Christmas Eve even if he would tell himself to stop grinning like an idiot and that he wasn't crushing on _Ariel_.

At the beginning he was incredibly annoyed with her for not answering any of his questions even if it wasn't her fault, but it was also another bittersweet reminder of his favourite siblings, Vanya, who used to be his only keeper and confidant before, always ready to listen to his ramble no matter the time and length. Always supportive, always so caring and sweet, always so sad...

Something in the middle of the night when the weight of being strong and carrying on got the best of him, Five thoughts went back to Vanya, a thirteen year old girl in a uniform still waiting for him in 2002.

He couldn't explain the sharp pain he felt inside his chest every time he realized it was 2019 and Vanya and the rest of his siblings grew up without him and some died...without him.

At those nights, he would look over at Ariel, and if she was asleep, he would watch her calm face sometimes imagining if Vanya wouldn't look a bit like her when she would grow up. He found strange comfort in it.

About a year after he arrived to this hell, pieces he was trying to put together about the apocalypse started to slowly find their place. Somewhat it didn't surprise him as much as he would have assumed. His sub-consciousness must have already known the truth but his consciousness had yet to accept it.

He was asleep although not really. He still had a problem to sleep in this new place feeling exhausted from walking all day under the burning sun and yet not enough for the sleep to take him. It was late, the death of the night, when he heard it.

After weeks of being the only one talking and all his questions unanswered, Five sort of assumed that the woman was mute completely due to injury or shock. Even if it was frustrating as it might have been just the shock of what happened to her, he tried not to blame her and level with her. He time travelled, skipping all what had happen, but she _survived_ the apocalypse, even if she was just hiding somewhere she was there when it happened. He couldn't imagine what it had to be like to see it all crash down. She must have not been train like he and his siblings. As children, they used to make fun of civilians, about how clueless they were, and unprepared for stressful situations. They used to make fun of many things, thinking they were somehow superior to others, didn't they? Now living in a world, where not even the great Umbrella Academy could save, he realized, _they_ were clueless ones.

So when he heard a very soft and quiet female voice, at first he thought he was dreaming or finally losing his sanity in this place.

He rolled to his side and then sat up looking at Ariel as she was feverishly moving on her sleeping spot gasping for air while whispering.

' _I'm sorry, I'm so sorry….please…I'm sorry_.'

The desperation and pure agony in her voice made Five rush to her side and put his hand on her shoulder ready to wake her up only to froze after what she whispered next.

' _Luther…Alison…Diego….Klaus…I'm so sorry._ '

He blinked. He told her a bit about his family. He was the only one talking in this silent world where the only noises were when a damaged wall or rock decided to collapse so of course he talked non-stop to fill the silence, but why would she dream of his siblings…

' _I didn't…I didn't mean to…the white violin made me…I'm so sorry…please_ , _'_ She kept on mumbling, tears now rolling down her cheeks.

Five watched her paralyzed with his hand on her shoulder. Suddenly the wind around them started to speed up.

' _Leonard,_ 'she suddenly shrieked, ' _No…no, I love them. I love my family. I don't want to…I don't want to hurt them…_ '

Everything was a mess inside Five's head. Hurt their family how? How could she do anything? And after he found them and buried them knowing they must have been at the center of the apocalypse together trying to stop it, did it mean she was there? And the white violin made her do it? DO WHAT?

The wind was becoming on controllable, wrecking some things around their camp and the nearby damaged buildings.

_Was she doing this…?_

' _I want to die…let me die instead…I want to die…please let me die instead don't hurt them…I want to die…'_

Five felt sick to his stomach hearing that.

_No! You can't leave me! Don't leave me here….I will be alone!_

The moment he felt Vanya start to shake the nightmare must have been getting more intense he leaned his forehead against hers and touched her cheek, 'It's okay, _Vanya_. It's okay…'

When he said her name, she started to trash and cry harder.

'Please, stop, it's okay…you…you're forgiven. I forgive you. Do you hear me? It's okay…it's...it will be alright. You're forgiven.'

He said it over and over again, not entirely sure if he meant it, but knowing he at least meant for it to help her at this point, calm her down.

It felt like forever, but it finally did the trick, and she settled down her breathing back to normal, the wind disappearing completely. He should have let her go. He should have wake her up now and demand that she told him everything. He should have. He _should_ have…

_I shouldn't have left you in the first place…_

Instead he found himself leaning away from her forehead and laying down next to her, his face close to her neck on her scattered brown hair. He laid next to her like that through the whole night thinking about what she just said and admitted and wondering what the hell happened. He couldn't help but wonder what part did he play in all of this. He left them. He ran away like a coward, a traitor and what happened? Vanya somehow…what destroyed the world? How was that even possible? She clearly thought it was all her fault, taking all the blame upon her fragile shoulders.

As she finally breathed calmly next to him, he couldn't help but wondered, how much of that blame was his own.

In the morning, he should have asked her about it. He should have sat her down and talk to her about it, find out what happened so he could stop it, but he…was scared, terrified really.

Since the moment he found her, it was the first time he felt profoundly terrified knowing that if he lost her…if she was gone…if she sacrificed herself to the guilt, he wouldn't just be _alone,_ which was terrible in the worst way possible, he would be without her. He would be without Vanya.

It was like this world was mocking him, telling him:

_Can't you see? There is still something we can take from you? You still have something left…_

Because it was true, he still had Vanya and if he lost her…he would have nothing, absolutely _nothing_.

So he went on with the day like it was any other making sure Vanya didn't notice the change in his behavior. Even though once he found out that mystery survivor was his sister, he felt a bit strange around her. He wanted to know what happened. He _needed_ to know what happened so he could stop it. But how could he ask her that without the risk of her flipping out. Gosh, but the questions were killing him.

He was always a seeker of answers, knowledge, new information. He wanted to know _everything_ always, and he had a chance, he had her here to tell him all he wanted to know, but he couldn't ask. It was the worst punishment, in the form of the greatest gift, because he had her here with him, knew it was her, but couldn't let her know he knew. Not now at least.

The questions, however, were endless about their family, the apocalypse, her powers? She caused the wind when she was having a nightmare, so her powers were connected to her emotions and weather? She said the white violin made her do it, and she tried to convince some Leonard that she loved her family. His blood boiled at the thought that perhaps she was somehow used against her will, or manipulated.

Despite her silence, he tried to come up with theories on his own. She didn't show any signs of powers growing up even if she was born the same day as them and adopted. Their father, when he was once being an asshole to Diego, mentioned that he shouldn't have taken him and leave him with the pile of the rest of the kids who showed little to no potential. So Vanya had to show some use if he took her as well. He started to recall the time she was taken away as a child claimed to be sick, until he brought her back numbed by her pills. Pills, which she hadn't use since they were here. There had to be a connection. As for why didn't see display powers since day one of their meeting, if she truly destroyed the apocalypse, she had to tired herself out, and it took a year to recharge.

After the night that he figured it out, her powers must have been slowly showing themselves again. He could tell Vanya was lost in her thoughts thinking about the dream, when the first few drops of rain hit his face.

He blinked up completely confused before his face broke out a smile.

_It was raining_. It was raining for the first time since the apocalypse.

Five grabbed her tiny hand startling her as pulled her up from the ground pointing at the sky and raising his head, 'Look, Ariel, it's raining.'

_Vanya, it's raining._

She started to shake and just like that the rain grew more intense finally wetting the world around them.

Five laughed in delight squeezing her hand and opening his mouth to taste the bliss of water inside his always dried mouth. It had been so long. He was thirsty for so long now.

It took him a moment before he looked down at her and realized that she was crying. It was just then that he realized that she was doing this. Her powers, her abilities. She was making it rain, and it scared her.

He could have tell her right then that it was okay, that he knew, that he accepted it, and they would figure it out.

But instead he squeezed her hand a bit more and gave her the biggest smile could muster, 'Ariel, it's beautiful.'

Her own smile was a bit crocked, more of a grimace, but it was something. It was a start on the road of acceptance for her. He would give it to her. He would show her that her powers didn't have to cause her fear. She said the white violin and Leonard made her do it. Well, whoever, those people were they weren't here. Just Vanya, just Ariel, and she could figure this out. He was sure of it. He would help her.

A couple of days passed after the first rain. She made it rain again the next day, not as heavily as before, but he figured she was still vary and testing what she could allow herself to do without causing too much damage.

He still wasn't completely at peace with what happened, he wanted, he _needed_ to just know, but he was too afraid of what she might do, _to herself._ But he figured he would try. He would try to show her that her powers did some good for them, and that he accepted her. He wouldn't show rage about their whole situation anymore or who caused it, and maybe it would be enough for him to earn her trust again.

One day when they went to find more supplies, he returned pleased with himself and the new first aid kit, he found in one of the trucks. He was a bit surprised when even after hours upon his return Vanya wasn't back. He got worried, scared even. His worst fears coming to haunt him whispering their cruel little lies about how she must have got too consumed by the guilt of what she did and just…

He ran to the direction she headed before. He found her near the place he buried their siblings. In the ruins where he found them before. She was on her knees crying hysterically with a piece of something white in her hands.

He waited for what felt like forever slowly watching her calming down. He assumed that her powers were somehow linked to her emotions now, but even if she looked like a completely mess the wind around them was light, not violent like the night of the revelations. It only confirmed his theory that she used too much of powers and now even if she got too emotional, they weren't strong enough. Still, having at one point your powers at their peak and being able to destroy the world could be objectively admirable and impressive. But only objectively.

After seeing her just kneeled at the spot, he returned to the camp to make food and wait for her. She came back just as he finished. He asked her where she was for good measures although he had no hope she would tell him. She didn't, and he dropped it with the questions after that. Whatever she had to go through that day, was enough for her.

Still, curiosity got the best of him and the next day when he knew she would stay in the camp, because he purposely mentioned he would go visit his siblings' graves, he went to the spot he saw her before.

At first it didn't look any differently than before until he saw the little pieces of something white.

_A violin_

His mind returned to her words.

… _the white violin made me do it_ …

He watched the pieces of Vanya's most beloved and most precious instrument which she cared for so dearly. He already had a theory about how her powers were connected also to the sound, but he let them rest for now as he watched the white pieces lying scattered on the ground.

It wasn't until he felt his own tears ran down his cheeks that he realized he was crying, for her. Something she _loved_ so dearly caused her so much pain…just like them.

He grimaced. She loved all their siblings and him and what they did? Leave her behind and made her feel worthless, ordinary, useless. Was this really all the reward, she got for her love? Nothing but pain? He couldn't get her horrifying cries of agony from yesterday out of his mind now.

Five brushed the way the tears in anger scratching them away wanting to fucking stop them.

Even if she was seventeen years older than him, she was still his little sister, who needed to be protected from nightmares by sneaking into his covers at night. She was still his little sister, who patiently listened to whatever he had to say showing compassion, interest and support which boosted his confidence more than dad's approval ever did. She was still his sister, his responsibility, his to take care of. He hoped that one day…one day, she would be ready to tell him the truth and what happened. Until then, all he could do was let her gather herself and the strength to do so helping in any way he could. She used to trust him once as well. When they were kids, when her voice was so small, and her eyes never quiet meeting the eyes of anyone else, she used to trust him then, to be a bit more open, a bit more herself a bit more comfortable before he left her behind.

That was on him, and he hoped he could earn some of that trust back, however, long it would take.

Earning Ariel's trust turned out to be very easy, he already had it but, to lure Vanya out seemed impossible all together. He sometimes wondered if he wouldn't just slip. Just...call her by her real name and see what would happened, but he buried the thought deep inside where it came from fear of what would happen next controlling his actions.

Time went by, and Five was growing up while Vanya was getting older although he could hardly tell. She looked so…young. Well, she was an adult, she had wrinkles, and experienced eyes and hands, but she also looked young and at times when she was just sitting next to him in peace with a small smile tugged over her face, she even looked _beautiful_.

He tried to keep himself in check, but by the time he turned fifteen it was clear he was crushing on her harder than ever. The realization came sooner of course, even before he knew she was Vanya, he was thirteen back then, and he was no stranger to pleasing himself. All teenage boys did this. They often had private moments, or just times they searched in different parts of the city, so of course, he had time to explore himself like any other teenage boy should have. It started the same way it always did, but as he got close to losing himself, he thought about Ariel. Not anything, she was doing, just her herself with her eyes a bit lighter and her smile and just the way she touched his chest when he spoke about his family. It was enough for him to come embarrassingly quickly and horrified that he did so. The thoughts didn't leave him, and when he found out she was Vanya. It freaked him out a bit more to know then because it stopped being images of her. It started to be well…actions. He thought about her touching him or taking him into his mouth like they saw in the movie Klaus got them that one time. The first time, it happened, he couldn't look into her eyes for the rest of the day, but the moment, he went at it again, she was already there in his mind with a soft smile and her wonderful fingers touching him and making him come alive. It only made sense in the long run. He was crushing always on the same person since he was probably able to develop feeling like a _crush_. When he tried to objectively look at it, he found it to be true because he couldn't remember a time, he ever thought or felt this way for another person than Vanya.

When he was fifteen, and he thought he was going to die as he got fever, and they had no real medication for that, he realized he loved her. Crush, caring whatever, he loved her. It was the only thing on his mind as he opened his eyes and saw her worried eyes looking at him constantly losing consciousness and wondering what was a dream and what not while his head was in her lap.

He loved her. He always have, and he probably always will. And he couldn't tell her. Not yet at least, so he pushed it into a dark corner, hoping that soon he would be able to do something about it.

It was the evening in the summer about four years after the apocalypse, after the white violin destroyed the world. That was at least how Five came to deal with the whole situation. His sister, Vanya, was forced by _the white violin_ , who made her destroy the world. He accepted and learnt to deal with it somehow living every day with Ariel, and waiting for Vanya to come back.

They were sitting by the fire, Five was talking and they drank a bit from the bottle of wine, which he found in the old wine cellar that survived the impact of the apocalypse. The wine was bitter, an odd sensation in his mouth, not entirely pleasant, but over the few sips, his mind started to feel a bit blurry and he had to admit it was a welcome release from the daily stress.

It was a peaceful night. Quiet. The kid of night when he would sneak out with siblings and watch the starts or go out on an adventure. It must have been the wine which was letting out feelings, he was keeping inside. His mind drifted to one particular memory of them dancing around like crazy when their father was away.

Five suddenly sighed, 'I miss music. My siblings and I used to listen to these old records of my brother's and dance around the house when our father was away. I hated the song _I think we're alone now_ , but we were all so happy. And it felt so good. I would give anything to hear it now,' he was rambling a bit from the wine in his blood now. Still, it was nice.

_I think we're alone now_

_There doesn't seem to be anyone around_

It was the first time he drank after all. He knew Klaus and Diego had a sip before he left, but he never found it appealing when he saw how stupid they acted afterwards or how their breaths smelled when Klaus pulled him closer and pressed himself against him laughing at something which wasn't funny at all.

_The beating of our heart is the only sound_

He got a bit lost in the memory. Now giving up everything he could to have Klaus here even with his stinky breath. He wondered if perhaps he was here, and if he maybe saw them. Klaus could see ghosts, so it was a safe guess that ghosts sometimes wonder around maybe all of their siblings were here watching them. Were they angry at Vanya for what she did? Disappointed with him for not confronting her and just trying to live the life best way possible in this world? Did they envy the living? Did they accept what happened?

Five frowned a bit. Did it even matter? Why should he care what his siblings would have thought now? The world was gone, and Vanya and him were the only ones left, there was no place left to dwell on things like that. They needed to survive, to live, to carry on until they die as well.

He couldn't help, but think that if Vanya wasn't here…if she somehow died during the destruction. He would probably kill himself or lose his mind. Maybe both. It was a chilling and a bit sobering thought all at once.

Whoa, he was not a funny drunk. He should probably do something about it before he would babble something he shouldn't.

_Look at the way we gotta hide what we're doin'_

Five jerked for a moment startled at the sudden sound which turned out to be Vanya humming the song.

_'Cause what would they say_

He stood up in an instant before he could even think what he was supposed to do. He just wanted…he just needed to feel alive again for a moment, to feel something, to live not just survive day by day.

He must have been a bit more tipsy than he thought because he pulled her up with such force their chests crashed together nearly causing him to stumble, but not from the impact itself.

_Running just as fast as we can, holding on to one another hands_

He nearly stumbled from the feeling of her chest pressed against his so close. Although they lived together for four years now and they shared occasional touches here and there from necessity, they never did anything like this. Actively and clearly in a way, there was no room for a mistaken touch.

_Trying to get away into the night_

It made Five feel something he hadn't allowed himself for a while now. Not since he started to grow up and all he could think about when he touched himself was the only other person, female, nevertheless, in his life now. Not unless, he was all alone with his hands inside his pants thinking about her.

It made his heart speed up from how she was looking at him now. So… _breathtaking_. It was the wine. He knew it was mostly the wine making him think all this, but also not so much. Not at all even.

'Ariel, dance with me,' he said because if he didn't say something, he would most likely do something else, something he wasn't entirely sure would be a good idea in their state or at all. But he knew he needed to do something so he did this hoping it would be a safer choice. It wasn't.

_And then you put your arms around me_

There was a momentary pause on her side, Five could see she was struggling with his request. He wondered if it was the gesture itself or to be this close to him. He wondered if she could feel it as well, the _something_ between them which he couldn't be put to words, but controlling them such force it made it hard to breath.

She was beautiful. She was older than him, but she was still a beautiful woman, not looking much older than the first day he found her. It wasn't just because of the wine, but because to him she always was beautiful. Luther once said Vanya was plain, but she wasn't. Not to him at least. To him she was like the sun always in the center of the room and he couldn't help, but orbit around her and closer to her like Icarus destined to get burned.

After what felt like forever she put her hands on his shoulders humming the song over and over again as they swung around to the sound both probably thinking about the times they would dance only wilder than this with their siblings.

_And we tumble to the ground and then you say_

Although her whole body shook, he could feel it under his hands on her lower back and waist; she kept his eyes on his and let him lead her, not pulling away. It was a good sign, he supposed.

He took her hand and lightly spun her around at one point causing her to let out a soft giggle which warmed his heart before he pulled her closer again, even closer than before.

_I think we're alone now_

Maybe it was the wine or maybe just having her this close, or maybe just the fact that they rarely did anything this fun in a dead world like this, but Five felt ridiculously happy and wanting to keep dancing with her forever not carrying if the ghosts of their siblings were watching them one bit.

He knew he was starting to push his luck, but it was like after that night, that dance, when he realized he could, and she wouldn't stop him, he wanted to touch her more. He craved to touch her more. He could tell that she was still bound by living in a world controlled with rules and social norms and so on. He could see it in the way, how she tried to look away flushed when he was changing his shirt, offering him privacy he didn't need. He could tell it from the way, she tried to keep a distance between them as they slept side by side. She was trying to act like an adult, a grown up, a decent woman in a world where none of that matter. He wouldn't do so if he thought his touches were intrusive, if she hated them and didn't want them, but he could feel that wasn't true. He felt it in the way she pressed her tiny palms against his chest as they sometimes danced in the night. He could feel it with the way she occasionally closed her eyes in bliss if he massaged her sore shoulders. He sometimes felt her look at him, from afar or close when they were sleeping. He wasn't sure what was going through her mind, but Five had the wildest ideas that she would just reach out and touch him on her own, or kiss him or just…something…

She craved the touch as well. She just didn't know how to ask for it. And even if Five was bolder than her, something was holding him back. There were many times he wanted to kiss her, take her into his arms and burry his face into her neck just to breath her in. He fantasized about her almost every night. Gone were the feelings of guilt and disgust for himself for lusting over his sister like that. He wanted her, he craved her, he loved her.

But he couldn't let himself tell her, or show her, not yet, not when he couldn't stop thinking that if he was lying to her in a way. He called her Ariel, the woman, who could be anyone she wanted to, but he knew it wasn't her. She was Vanya…she always would be Vanya, and somehow even though he lost every bit of morals and care for them, he still didn't feel alright about doing anything without her knowing that he knew who she was. But he couldn't tell her without her telling him first. Even after years together alone in this world, even after so many little moments of happiest in this world, he was still afraid of how would she react if he told her. He still feared she would try to do something, leave him in some way all alone. He feared it more than anything, but as he grew, with every day passing by, he realized it wasn't just the fact that he would be alone. It was worse. He wouldn't have her. The thought of not having her, was too painful to comprehend.

Ironically, he was close to eighteen when he found her book which most likely change the course of their future.

The library was still standing, so he and Vanya spent a lot of time reading books. Sometimes it felt like there was never enough to do around, and other times it felt like there was too much to do. There were ruined books all around them, but there were also plenty safe and sound.

He let his fingers danced a bit over the covers before he froze thinking for a moment, he must have read it poorly.

He pulled the book out and sure enough, thirteen year old Vanya's picture was at the front.

She wrote a book.

He completely lost himself after that reading her words over and over again, just then realizing how much he missed her talking.

He couldn't help, but grin, as he saw what she wrote. She was insane. She spilled all their family secrets in such an amazing style, he couldn't help, but feel pride and love for her. She was insane and she was amazing.

Five's eyes snapped up at the sound of some rock moving. His eyes immediately caught her.

She ran. She saw her book in his hands. She knew. He realized the sun was low now. He must have lost track of time as he found the book, and she must have gone looking for him.

'Vanya!'

It had been years of failed attempts, but in that moment, in the moment, he probably needed his powers more than ever, they did not fail him.

He jumped in front of her and caught her shaking and jerking trying to break free from his hold on her shoulders, their heavy breathing chest pressed together.

He begged her to stop.

'I'm sorry,' was the first thing she said directly to him in five years since they were there.

'I'm sorry, Five, I-I-'

He kissed her before she could utter another word out crashing his lips against hers in the most desperate and hopeless kiss he could possibly make. He didn't want to hear it. He didn't need to hear it. He didn't need an apology, he was five years passed that. He needed her to know that he didn't need an apology, he had one already. He got it every single day, since the moment he found her. He received it in her looks, her gestures, her unspoken words, every single thing she did filled with guilt from what she did, what the white violin made her do. It was bullshit that she tried to apologize again, when all she did since they found each other was apologize.

He couldn't take it anymore. He just couldn't. He kissed her finally letting go of everything which was holding him back. Every single piece of doubt, just everything. He didn't know if it was because he waited so long, or because he loved and craved her so much, but she tasted _deliciously_. He missed many things in this world, many tastes, many flavors. He never knew the feeling of his lips on Vanya's before, but _god_ now he wanted nothing more. Now he loved nothing more.

It took him a moment because of the feeling of pure euphoria to catch on the fact that she was pushing at him trying to break free from him.

Startled he let her go confused and panicked that it was a mistake, that she wasn't ready at all, and maybe even didn't feel the same, and he forced himself on her.

Before he could run, or kick himself for doing such a thing against her will, she grabbed the front of his shirt desperately pulling him toward her capturing his lips in her own guiding him a bit. He spared only one thought to the fact that her kissing him back in an almost elegant way, was far better than his first sloppy attempt before he got consumed by the fire started in both of their bodies after they first touched.

They moved like they were starving which they were because in this world full of ash and dust with almost nothing left you could only starve for food, for water, for touch, for a sound, for anything really.

His hands were all over her trying to find as much skin as the stupid clothing allowed. He wanted to taste her, feel her, and devour her. He wanted all of her and he wanted to take it all. He always wanted her, but now, now he could and he would and he wouldn't stop until he would get all of her. All there was.

He squeezed her as close as possible. She was so much shorter than him both of them having to lean down and up to be able to kiss, but he didn't mind. She was perfect. Perfect for him. Always meant to be _his_...

His lips moved to her jaw, and her throat. She was breathtakingly soft it made his head spin. He lightly sank his teeth into the soft skin there, and she let out the most relieved moan he ever heard. It was like she was holding back for years and was finally allowed free and he fucking loved the feeling it brought when her tiny hands went under his shirt over his stomach and chest. He was already hard for her. He wanted her so bad.

They started to undress each other, but they were too feverish and desperate ending only with his pants to his knees and hers only a little bit lower, enough to reveal her though.

He spared a look at her feeling his head spinning from the short curly hair between her legs before he kissed her again, not being able to slow down even if some part of him, a rational, human part of him was telling him that he should. He couldn't. He waited so long. He ached for her, for this. He had been coming for her for years now. Only her. When she first crossed his mind as he was touching himself, he panicked before he shamefully finished feeling like a perverted animal, but over the years he realized there was no shame in it. How could it be? She was meant for him and he was meant for her, and time and space always had a way of getting them back together, second chance, destiny. Fuck, he didn't care as he ripped her shirt open tearing a couple of buttons off.

She stopped wearing bras years ago, and he noticed. _God, he noticed_.

They didn't say anything as they laid down in a tangled mess of limps communicating like animals only through sounds and moans. As he took each of her breast in his hand finally being able to do all he wanted for so long, all he dreamed about doing for so long.

More than anything else, however, he loved the way she touched him. She wasn't new at this. He figured. She was older than him, surely she had some lovers, but that didn't matter now, because they were the only people left, just the two of them, just like it always should have been.

Her touch was out of his world. He couldn't focus when she dragged her nails over his body. The touch lighted him up on fire, and he was ready to burn for it, for her.

Not being able to slow down at all, Five stroked himself against her center as he jerked his hips.

' _Vanya,_ ' he groaned like an animal, but the moment he caught her eyes some of the urgency and passion faded away sobering him up. She looked hurt.

Why? Because he said her name? Because if she was Ariel, she was just a woman who survived the apocalypse? But if she was Vanya, she was the woman who let the white violin destroy the world?

He didn't know what to do. He wanted to kiss her, he wanted to tell her that it didn't matter to him because he _loved_ her, and he forgave her and-and…

She reached between them, took him into her hand and stroked him couple of times breaking the line of his thoughts completely.

_Fucking hell_ …

He closed his eyes letting out a whimper. He never had anyone else touch him like this, and it made it impossible to think with her hand on him. She made him feel so _good_. Too good. If she didn't stop this would have been over pretty soon.

' _Seven_ ,' he breathed out suddenly as he brushed her hand away but linked his finger through hers pushing it to the ground next to her head.

He hoped that would be better. Seven, not Vanya, or Ariel, just Seven, the little girl who she was before Grace gave her the name and set the path for her who she would become.

When Five opened his eyes looking at her, there was no pain behind her hazel eyes anymore, just lust and love. For once they didn't look broken at all.

When he caught the single tear rolling down her reddish cheek now, he leaned down and kissed her this time a bit softer, keeping himself in check so she could taste how he felt about her.

'Five, _please_.'

They didn't waste more time. He entered her with one quick move still trembling in her embrace. She felt so good. She made him feel so good, and it was hard to control himself after that. She was just so gorgeous lying under him like that. So soft and welcoming and precious. And she was all his. She was giving him this, letting him have it, like it was always meant to be his, and he took it greedily as he buried himself inside of her his face against her neck breathing her in with loud and deep pants.

He needed a second not to come right then on the first thrust before he started to move inside her. It was pure bliss, and Five _never_ felt anything like it, and once he got the taste, it burnt into his memory, he never wanted anything else.

Both of them were moaning and groaning urging one another for more like wild animals looking at nothing but themselves and wanting nothing more than to fill their pleasures and needs. He loved it. He loved getting lost in it, inside her, and hear her begs, and moans, and groans and all those lovely noises she made as he was going deeper into her.

He moved with an almost brutal force, but with the way her hips moves against his even it was a bit coordinated, she must have enjoyed it.

' _Seven-'_

' _Harder…please,'_ she begged him with her voice breaking, and he fucking lost it going even faster and more brutal then before feeling himself coming with every thrust which caused something inside him to be marked forever by this moment, by the first time he was ever allowed to do this, to have her, to taste her, the woman, who he loved since he was a child.

When he came he couldn't stop his hips from going on, even if he was already done feeling himself leaking inside of her. Everything he ever knew vanished with the white canvas which covered his mind. He never felt more at peace and more at chaos than in that moment, and it was absolutely _impossible_ to put to words how amazing it felt.

When he came down from the high, he set his forehead against her shoulder trying to come to his senses but failing miserably. She, and her warm walls around his dick, and her soft, throated moans, her arms all around him, and her consuming kisses completely ruined him. Maybe it was always like this, but somehow much later Five knew in his heart that it was only because it was Seven who he did it with.

He kissed and nuzzled her shoulder and neck feeling at absolute peak of happiness as he pulled out of her feeling very sweaty almost dirty, but liking it, no, _loving_ it. It was theirs, and it was perfect.

He didn't know how long he spent lying there on top of her liking the way, she stoke his hair always so softly, yet from time to time her fingers would dug into his scalp making him moan a bit. She was good at that. At knowing what he liked almost instantly. He doubted, he would ever feel _this_ way with anyone else. He didn't even want to think about it.

He kissed her shoulder again gently. Why bother thinking about it, when the only one he ever wanted was Seven anyway?

A while went by before they started to slowly stand up much to Five's disappointment. He wouldn't mind lying on the ground with her a bit more, but it couldn't be comfortable for her already ruined back.

He could tell it was a bit awkward to get dress again, well mostly zip and button up, since they didn't even bother getting completely naked with how rushed and passionate they were. It made him smile though, even if she wasn't looking. They were building this sexual tension between them for years now, it made sense that the moment it came to the big bang they completely jumped at the chance to urged and impatient to way even a second long.

When she finally looked at him, he could tell she was worried, scared even, of what he might say or think probably because of the book, of what happened. He hated the thought of her suffering any more than she already. Then she already let herself suffer because of something which was most likely out of her control. He knew her. He _knew_ her. He knew all of her. She was not a monster, not a killer, whatever happened. It was her. He just knew it. No one and nothing could make him change his mind.

He took her hand in his, kissing the back of it before he pressed it against his chest, his beating heart, and beating just for _her_ , 'You're forgiven.'

It was like he snapped his fingers or pushed some button before both them started to cry right then and there.

It was all too much for a moment, but he didn't want to let her go and crawl into doubt again. He forgave her. He felt it in his heart that he did. If he didn't he couldn't have done what he did, he couldn't have loved her if he didn't forgive her, but he did, maybe even the second he found out, he just did…

If ghosts of their siblings were somewhere around them, they could go _fuck_ themselves. He read her book, her words, nothing changed after he left, if anything it got worse, so fuck whatever they would have said to this.

He just wished she would take it. Because if she didn't, if she somehow decided she couldn't stay, or live, with him knowing who she was? He didn't know what he would do.

The moment until she finally nodded and hugged him with one arm, their hands still together pressed between their chests now, felt like forever.

He let out a relieved breath he didn't know he was holding and kissed her hair adoringly, more tears rolling down his cheeks.

She was staying. She accepted his forgiveness.

He had never been happier in his entire life.

They came back to the camp slowly with no rush whatsoever, just one step at a time her hand still in his.

He knew he was being a bit silly. But he couldn't help asking her every single question he had to push away for five years she was silent.

Her voice was _beautiful_. He couldn't get enough of it, trying to hear more and more of it knowing she must have gotten tired of all the talking but he didn't care. He wanted to hear everything, there was. He wanted know everything.

They ate, and she talked and nothing really changed. They felt the same they did that morning. The only difference was that now they could act upon it.

Seven finished another story about her job in Icarus, and Five paused. He had another question. He had like million questions still, but he didn't want to _talk_ at the moment.

As she finished the dishes, he suddenly kneeled in front of her and kissed her. It was softer this time than before. When he pulled away, he only had one question he really needed her to answer in that moment.

She leaned away as well and started to unbutton those few buttons Five hadn't ripped completely before. He didn't feel sorry about it. Clothes were the one thing they had almost too many of.

He let her take off her clothes before he did the same taking his time as he liked the view of her standing naked in their camp with nothing but the blush covering her cheeks and chest.

She was tin, very tin, but since there never was too much food around so was he, he didn't mind though. She was gorgeous, nevertheless.

Before, in the street, it was different. They felt like they needed to put down the flame sparked inside them as quick as possible, nibbling and grinding and trying for a quick release. He tried to be delicate with her and last but it was the first time, and it was a long time coming so he knew he was a bit of an animal to her.

Now as he carefully pulled her closer and pressed his lips against her forehead both of them standing naked in front of each other, he knew they had time.

He laid her down on his made bed, and started to do what he always did when he was faced with something new he was thrilled and interested with. Five started to explore her.

He was soft and taking his time, even if he felt himself get hard just from seeing her naked under him. He focused his thoughts and priorities a bit before he leaned down and started to examine her body.

His lips and hands went on a field trip marking and mapping her everywhere paying close attention to every soft sigh, moan or groan she let lose so he would know what she liked the most. He loved unraveling her like a birthday gift figuring out all there was about her body which was something he secretly dreamed about since he hit puberty.

He wanted to taste and feel her everywhere, worshiping her body while bring her pleasure from the way she arched her back and moaned digging her fingers harder into his shoulders.

He wouldn't lie, it was hard to stay focused, but Five was a man on a mission, who always finished his assignment. Assignment, which was learning as much about Seven's body as possible while bring her absolute pleasure, and he enjoyed every second of it.

She was shaking all over by the time he moved to between her legs, the part he was most excited about. He started kissing and licking her there, pleased with all her reactions as she was being completely ruined by him now.

'We have time for this…later,' she said between pants grabbing his shoulder to get his attention.

He looked up his mouth wet and a bit sticky from her. He couldn't help but find her beautiful as she watched him completely wrecked, her face red and lips swollen, her hair which she still tried to brush every day to look a bit more socially acceptable, now wildly all around. She looked perfectly breathtaking _savage_ …but it still wasn't enough.

He smirked pleased when she swallowed from seeing it. She might have played it well, but he caught her looking at him when he did that and knew it had some affect on her.

' _But I want more_ ,' he told her greedily before he was down again his tongue wrecking her all over again until she didn't come again her cry echoing through the empty city, and world finally filling it with at least some sound.

It was the real music to his ears.

The world always felt so quiet, he wanted to hear the music again, and again, and again in the form of Seven's desperate cries from her orgasms.

It felt like hours had passed until they were finally done, worn out. Both of them just lying on their made beds from clothing and anything which could be comfy and just a bit soft, linked with one another feeling completely at peace. The urge was satisfied for now even if it was still there under his skin as he could feel the heat of her skin against his.

They were naked now with only a blanket over them and Seven's powers creating a nice warm wind to keep them warm. Funny, he forgot to ask her about her powers…maybe later.

'I knew it was you,' he said as he stroked her hair a bit. It felt like the right moment to come clean. Both of them were at peace, and contented and just…happy.

She just hummed in approval.

'I found the book only today and got a bit sidetracked by it forgetting what time it was,' he explained sounding a bit tired. He was wrecked. She wrecked him even if he was the one doing most of the work. That little vixen.

'Sometimes, you talked in your dream. When you had nightmares,' he explained, still letting his fingers play with her hair. He used to like doing that when they were little and Seven would come to play with him in his room. Both of them trying to stay quiet so no one would hear them.

'You said their names, and that you wished you were death instead of them,' he said pausing for a moment remembering that night, the night when first caught the fear of losing her, the only other survivor, losing Seven, all over again. It caused him pain just to think about it again even now when he had her naked pressed against his body, safe in his arms it still terrified him.

'I was afraid that if I told you that I knew. If I let it out, you would let the guilt consume you completely and try to...and you would leave me here all alone,' he said feeling tears run down his cheeks again. He couldn't even feel embarrassed about them anymore.

He was crying now, and she sat up to look at him. Her voice was still strange as she spoke, 'Five, I'm sorry-'

'I know,' he said and kissed her making her taste the salt of his tears.

'I forgive you, Seven.'

As she melted into the kiss again her hands on his cheeks softly stoking his face making him feel the love, he slowly calmed down.

She wasn't planning to leave him. She wouldn't leave him. He knew that now.

They broke the kiss and she let her finger stoke though his face, 'I love you…I love you, Five.'

'I love you too, Seven. It was always you, only you,' he said brushing her hair and hoping that she could accept this as well. There wasn't a maybe or what if not in this and not for him. Not when he kissed her or touched her and felt like he was reborn again just for her.

There was never meant to be anyone else, just the two of them, and it meant that the world had to be destroyed and he would have to be lost in time, he would take it. He will fucking take it and fight to blood whoever or whatever would try to take it from his hand. Because this was his truth, his destiny, his future, with Seven. It was always meant to be Number Five and Number Seven, and he told her so much right before he kissed her neck and the two of them laid back down enjoying the breeze she made with her powers and the feeling of one another in their arms.

In the world with nothing but ash and ruins, Number Five was the happiest last man on Earth for he had Number Seven the last woman on Earth there with him.

**The End**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N: Hi, sorry it took so long, and I am very sorry, but I won't update any of my stories this week. Some things came up, and the time I had saved to finish the chapters I was forced to use elsewhere. Again sorry :(
> 
> I hope you like this chapter though. It took me a while to get it to the point I liked. I don't know, but at times it felt very odd, like I wasn't writing the same story at all…I don't know maybe I'm just in a weird state of mind right now. Anyway, I hope you like it still. If you want leave a feedback, thank you for reading and support.

**Author's Note:**

> A.N: Yeah, so this was sparked by a conversation I had with my BF about some of the fics I read here about Vanya surviving the apocalypse and living in the wasteland with Five. We sort of got to the point where we discussed the fall society and lack of morals in a place like that and he was like: ‘Don’t tell me that two people who have some emotional connection if they were the only two people left in the world wouldn’t bone.’ (His words not mine. :D Although I totally agree) But we started to debate about it and came to a conclusion that even if Five was furious with Vanya about what she did, and he might even hate her, she would still be the only one left with him also he was a growing teenage boy at the time who definitely had a crush on her at point growing up. (Yes, I will fight anyone who will say he didn’t.) So it was a safe bet that they would both be craving touch and love and anything warm in a world like that.
> 
> Anyway, I was trying to go for something less romantic and more practical, but with these two I just can’t and I really don’t want to if I’m being honest.
> 
> I hope you liked the story, I just wanted to ramble about it a bit I guess. It will be a two-shot. The second chapter will be Five’s POV.
> 
> Also yes, I know I couldn’t be more cliché with the title even if I wanted to -_-


End file.
